This application claims priority from Japanese patent application number 2000-106280, filed Apr. 7, 2000, which is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
The present invention relates to an electrical connecting structure of a mounted part that is applied to a computer apparatus and electronic equipment, and in particular, to an electrical connecting structure of a mounted part by which connector connection is completed by just mounting the mounted part in a part-receiving part when a connector provided in a mounted part side is electrically connected to a connector provided in a part-receiving part side, and a computer apparatus and electronic equipment that have the electrical connecting structure of the mounted part.
Generally speaking, electronic equipment uses connectors for electrically connecting a circuit board, an electronic part, an electronic device, or the like. Major part of electronic equipment is manually connected with connectors at the time of assembling the electronic equipment.
For example, in a notebook type personal computer (hereinafter, a notebook PC) 100 shown in FIG. 10, connector connection is performed with such manual operation when a keyboard unit 102 is mounted in a PC body 104 of the notebook PC 100.
It is necessary to mount the keyboard unit 102 in a part-mounted section 106 of the PC body 104 without play and a gap because of functional and appearance specifications or the like. Therefore, an outer periphery 102A of the keyboard unit 102 and a part-mounted section 106 are produced so as to accurately fit with each other.
In addition, a connector (a male connector) 114 is a companion of a connector (a female connector) 112 attached on a mother board 110 in the PC body 104. Furthermore, this connector 114 is attached in an end section of a flexible printed circuit cable (hereinafter, an FPC cable) 108 extending from an approximate center of a rear end section of the keyboard unit 102. Therefore, the keyboard unit 102 is electrically connected to a system unit (PC body 104) through the connector 114 connected to this FPC cable 108 and the connector 112.
Here, issues at the time of attaching a connector to a keyboard unit will be described.
The simplest method for attaching the connector is to directly attach and fix the connector to an installation side (reference symbol 102B in FIG. 10) of the keyboard unit. Thus, the connector in the keyboard unit side is located at a position facing the connector in the mother board side with the keyboard unit being mounted in the PC body, and is fixed with adjusting height (direction of thickness in the PC body) so as to obtain proper insertion depth. Owing to such a form, it becomes possible to mount the keyboard unit and simultaneously connect connectors with each other.
For example, Published Unexamined Patent Application No. 4-66628 and Published Unexamined Patent Application No. 7-99553 disclose such a structure that a connector is attached to an installation side of a keyboard unit.
In this art, it is proposed that a key-top section corresponding to the structure of an upper section of a keyboard is detachable from a keyboard body. Therefore, in each invention, a connector for connection to the keyboard body is directly attached and fixed to the installation side of the key-top section. It is said that, owing to this, it becomes possible to easily correspond to changes of key size and key arrangement by just changing the key-top section. Alternatively, it is said that it becomes convenient to change the key-top section.
Nevertheless, usually, the key-top section is mounted with any alignment with a keyboard body in some degree. For example, in case of a notebook PC, a key-top section is aligned with an outer periphery of a keyboard unit being fitted with a part-mounted section of the PC body.
For this reason, it is impossible to relatively move the keyboard unit 102 to the PC body within a plane of the installation side and to perform fine adjustment of a mounted position. Therefore, so as to adopt such structure that a connector is directly fixed to the keyboard unit, it is necessary to attach connectors with high precision by suppressing misalignment, arising between both connectors, as small as possible.
This is because there is a problem that a connector and/or a board are damaged due to applying an excessive force to the connector at the time of mounting the keyboard unit if the connector is largely misaligned. Hence, there is a high possibility of leading to a continuity failure due to stress concentration and a cracking in a lead section and/or lands (an electrode section) in a board side, which are soldered by reflow soldering, because such a state that enforced alignment is kept also after connection of the connectors. These are common to a DIP type connector or the like as well as a surface-mounted connector.
Nevertheless, in actual mass production, connector positions in a keyboard unit side and a mother board side naturally fluctuate due to manufacturing accuracy and a number of parts, an actual mounting method, an implementation method, or the like. Therefore, it is difficult to suppress an amount of misalignment of the connector within an allowance for clearing the above-described problems with adding manufacturing quality (dimensional tolerance) of components constituting the keyboard unit and PC body. Even if this is realized, this PC will be expensive, and hence the cost effectiveness of the PC will be drastically lowered. Therefore, it is inconvenient just to merely fixedly attach the connector.
Then, in a conventional example shown in FIG. 10, the FPC cable 108, where an electric circuit is formed on a thin-plate-like flexible substrate, is provided in the keyboard unit 102. Therefore, it is possible to move the connector 114 by attaching the connector 114 in an end section of this cable, and hence the above-described problems can be solved.
In order to mount this keyboard unit 102 in the PC body 104, first, with orienting and holding the keyboard unit 102 in a direction shown in FIG. 11 with one hand, the connector 114 located in the end section of the cable is inserted into and connected to the connector 112 in the mother board 110 (FIG. 12).
After connection of the connectors, the FPC cable 108 is lowered below the keyboard unit 102 and treated so as not to be pinched, and an end section of the keyboard unit 102 is fitted into a receiving section 116 in the PC body 104. Furthermore, the keyboard unit 102 is temporarily fixed by a side section of the keyboard unit 102 being latched with latches 118 that are convexly provided in the part-mounted section 106 and can protrude and recess.
Mounting is completed by fixing the keyboard unit 102 on supports 120, which are stood on an installation side 102B of the keyboard unit 102, lest the keyboard unit 102 should be detached by fastening screws 122 from the bottom face (installation face) of the PC main body 104 (FIG. 13).
In this manner, when the keyboard unit 102 is mounted in the PC body 104, the connector 114, becoming movable through the FPC cable 108, is first connected, and then the keyboard unit 102 is mounted. Therefore, an excessive force never acts on the connectors 112 and 114, and the mother board 110 when the keyboard unit 102 is mounted. In addition, stress is not applied to the connectors 112 and 114, and FPC cable 108 also after connection.
Nevertheless, in such a conventional electrical connecting structure described above, the connector 112 in a system side that is mounted on the mother board 110 is located with entering inside the PC body 104, and is hidden by the keyboard unit 102 positioned on this side when being connected to the connector 114 (operation shown in FIGS. 11 and 12). Therefore, it is difficult to align the connectors. If the connector 112 is forcibly pushed in a state of incomplete alignment, there is a possibility of damaging the connector(s), and further, skill is required because it is necessary to perform the connection with one hand.
In addition, when the keyboard unit 102 is lifted alone, the FPC cable 108 hangs under the own weight of the connector 114. Hence there is a probability of catching and damaging the FPC cable 108.
On the other hand, when the keyboard unit 102 is detached, there is also a possibility of the FPC cable 108 and soldered sections of the connectors 112 and 114 being pulled and damaged if the keyboard unit 102 is erroneously lifted without unplugging the connector 114 (in a state of connection).
The present invention has been made in view of the above-described facts and provides an electrical connecting structure of a mounted part that facilitates insertion and detachment of a connector when the mounted part is mounted in or dismounted from a part-receiving part, and that prevents the damage of the connector and an FPC cable when the mounted part is mounted and dismounted, and a computer apparatus and electronic equipment to which the electrical connecting structure of a mounted part is applied.
An aspect of the present invention for achieving the above object is an electrical connecting structure for electrically connecting a component constituting a part of an electronic equipment to another part of the electronic equipment by fitting the component to another part of the electronic equipment, the structure comprising: a first connector provided in the component; a support member movably supporting the first connector in the first component; and a second connector provided in another part of the electronic equipment, the second connector to be used for connecting with the first connector.
The above-described electrical connecting structure of a mounted part has such configuration that the first connector can relatively move to the mounted part by providing the supporting member, which movably supports the first connector, on the mounted part. Any material can be used as this supporting member so long as the material can movably support the first connector, and hence a spring member made of metal or resin can be used.
Owing to this, not only the mounted part is mounted in the part-receiving part, but also the first connector in a mounted part side is connected to the second connector in a part-receiving part side. In addition, even if the first connector and second connector are misaligned, the first connector moves according to an amount of the misalignment, and hence a desired joint state can be obtained.
In this manner, since misalignment between both connectors is absorbed by the supporting member movably supporting the first connector, it is possible to resolve failures such as damage that arise when the connector is fixedly connected. In addition, since an excessive force does not act on both connectors also after connection, a continuity failure or the like due to the cracking of a soldered section do not arise.
Furthermore, since the first connector is attached in the mounted part through the supporting member, the first connector which has been inserted into the second connector is disconnected only by detaching the mounted part from the part-receiving part.
Therefore, since it is not necessary to separately insert or detach the connecter when the mounted part is mounted in or dismounted from the part-receiving part, it becomes simple to connect and disconnect the connector.
In addition, according to this configuration, even if the first and second connectors are surface-mounted type or DIP type connectors, similar effects can be obtained.
Furthermore, the above-described electrical connecting structure can also have the configuration in which the first connector is connected to an electronic circuit mounted on the component through a flexible cable.
It is preferable to use a flexible cable, which is easily bent and deformed, for electrically connecting the first connector to an electronic circuit mounted on a mounted part. This is because the first connector can move without being disturbed by the stiffness of the flexible cable.
In addition, another aspect of the present invention is an electrical connecting structure for electrically connecting a component constituting a part of an electronic equipment to another part of the electronic equipment by fitting the component to another part of the electronic equipment, the structure comprising: a first connector provided in another part of the electronic equipment; a support member movably supporting the first connector in another part of the electronic equipment; and a second connector provided in the component, the second connector to be used for connecting with the first connector.
The above-described electrical connecting structure of a mounted part has such configuration that a supporting member is provided in a part-receiving part and supports a first connector so as to be movable. In this manner, also in such configuration that a connector in a part-receiving part side (first connector) is made to move, it is possible to obtain an action and an effect that are similar to those in the above-described form of a connector in a mounted part side (first connector) moving.
In addition, this electrical connecting structure of a mounted part can also have the configuration of the first connector being connected to an electronic circuit, mounted on a part-receiving part, through a flexible cable. Here, similarly to the above-described form, it is preferable to use a flexible cable because the first connector can move without being disturbed by the stiffness of the flexible cable.
In addition, in still another aspect of the present invention, the above-described flexible cable is a flexible printed-circuit cable (FPC cable) where an electric circuit is formed with printed wiring on a plate-like substrate that can be bent and deformed. Furthermore, in the configuration of surface-mounting and attaching a first connector to this flexible printed-circuit cable, the flexible printed-circuit cable can have a form of absorbing a force applied to a first connector when the first connector and a second connector are connected to each other.
The form of absorbing a force applied to the first connector is the structure of being easily deformed by a force in a direction of pulling the cable or in a direction of twisting the cable such as thinning the cable width of the flexible printed-circuit cable, forming a hole or a notch in the cable, making the cable nonlinear, or loosening the cable with providing a coiled section.
Owing to this, even when the first connector is moved, the force acting on the flexible printed-circuit cable by the movement is relieved by the flexible deformation of the cable. Therefore, it never happens that an excessive stress is applied to a lead section of the first connector surface-mounted on the cable. Furthermore, since it never happens that the electronic circuit that is mounted on the mounted part or part-receiving part is also pulled through the flexible printed-circuit cable in connection with the movement of the first connector, the electronic circuit is prevented from being damaged.
In addition, in the above-described electrical connecting structure, a guide member for connecting the first connector to the second connector at the time of the component being fitted to the another part of the electronic equipment can be included in the component or another part of the electronic equipment.
This guide member can be made to be separate from the second connector or the first connector, which is movable, and be provided in the first or second connector in a state of being detachable from the first or second connector. Alternatively, this guide member can be formed in one piece in the first or second connector itself. In addition, this guide member can be provided in the component or another part of the electronic equipment.
Owing to this, even if an amount of misalignment between both connectors is large, the first connector is guided by the guide member and is aligned with the second connector. Therefore, it becomes possible to securely and smoothly connect both connectors.
Furthermore, in a further aspect of the present invention, for example, an elastic body made of a high molecular compound such as synthetic rubber and elastomer can be the above-described supporting member. Furthermore, it is preferable to select urethane rubber as the elastic body.
If the supporting member is an elastic body such as synthetic rubber, the elastic body becomes cheap because a complicated mechanism is unnecessary. In addition, if being the urethane rubber that is excellent in thermal resistance, anti-aging property (durability), or the like, it is possible to maintain original elasticity because of strength for thermal degradation even if heat generated by the operation of electronic equipment is applied in a state of being deformed by absorbing the misalignment of connectors. Therefore, it is possible to suppress the degradation of a function of supporting connectors and a moving function.
In addition, a still further aspect of the present invention is a computer apparatus or electronic equipment having the above-described electric connection structure of a mounted part.